International Women's Day? More like, best day ever.

Voko's best and brightest.

            As we slowly creep towards April, the peak of the dry season, it has been getting steadily hotter every day. We’ve reached the point in the dry season where a cool breeze is basically non-existent and when the (hot) wind does blow, it brings along a fistful of dust. At any rate, the high school biology teacher and I have been pushing forward with our Health and Environment Club, completing four presentations for the students, and looking forward to a trip into Faro National Park this weekend. The presentations were setup as an introduction to the Park, as well as an introduction to conservation, to give the students some background information about their roles in, and relationship to, environmental protection.

             The first presentation covered the history and creation of Faro Reserve (the reserve surrounding the Park), the hunting zones within it, and gave the students some basic facts and statistics about the Park and protected areas in Cameroon. The second presentation focused on the Voko/Bantadje Communal Hunting Zone, which is a hunting zone in the reserve, which was turned over to the respective development committees of the two villages of Voko and Bantadje, to manage collectively. As a result of this, the two villages should be reaping the benefits of the money made by the hunting guide running the zone, but unfortunately the owed money and benefits are not reaching the community. Our hope is that armed with more information, the students, their families, and the community as a whole can hold the people currently running the two development committees more accountable. The third presentation was a lighter topic where we talked about the importance of biodiversity, and noted a few interesting or popular animals found in our area. The last presentation focused on problems faced by the park (wildfires, poaching, illegal trespassing and grazing, and deforestation to name a few) and what we can do to resolve these issues. There has been a steady attendance of about twenty students who are eager to learn and get involved. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this momentum up after our trip this weekend.

              As February came to an end, all any woman or man in village could talk about was “la problème de 08 Mars” or “the Women’s Day problem”—every year women are expected to buy annual Women’s Day fabric, or more commonly, have it purchased for them by a husband or boyfriend, so they can march wearing their new outfit, during the International Women’s Day parade on March 08. 

The winning team of the Women's Day soccer match.

Although I opted out of both the much sought-out fabric and marching in the parade, I did join the women the night before the holiday, in a kind of talent show where they mostly danced and lip-synched to music. The day of the “fête” I helped prepare a copious amount of food for the evening, to be served at the “Women’s Day Soirée” (mostly a dance party) and then in the afternoon, the height of my day, I held my own on the field during the soccer match. Although participation wasn’t outstanding, the group of women who planned, organized, and animated the holiday in Voko did a great job and those of us involved had a great time.